SOURCE: http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-28870988
Prepare yourself for wailing and gnashing of teeth as the UN International Panel on Climate Change advocates meet in Paris. The Telegraph newspaper article in the UK summed up the Panel’s view:
“The world is on course to experience “severe and pervasive” negative impacts from climate change unless it takes rapid action to slash its greenhouse gas emissions, a major UN report is expected to warn on Sunday.
Flooding, dangerous …Continue Reading »

Reprinted with permission from Oilprice.com
"As the global warming debate increases in its intensity we find both sides deeply entrenched, hurling accusations and lies at one another in an attempt to gain the upper hand. This divide within the scientific community has left the public wondering who can be trusted to provide them with accurate information and answers.
The IPCC, the onetime unquestioned champion of climate change, has had its credibility questioned over the years, firstly with …Continue Reading »

Last week saw a return of Al Gore preaching the gospel of climate change. Meanwhile, Michael Bloomberg gave $50 million to the Sierra Club to help fight for the closure of coal-fired power generation plants. Then there was the release of a new paper called Climate Pragmatism produced by a diverse group of think tank types across the political spectrum urging both sides to shut up about global warming, climate crisis or the name du jour for issues surrounding emissions.
What is happening …Continue Reading »

The Gallup Organization surveyed 1,000 adults across 111 countries in a recent round of its surveys. Gallup repeats questions periodically to see the trends in changing opinion.
"How serious a threat is global warming to you and your family?"
The result of this latest round of surveys does little to settle the debate over global warming, but it offers both sides something to use to advance their arguments. While the worldwide average response has changed little over the past few years, 42% …Continue Reading »

On February 17, 2011, US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its latest report on greenhouse gas emissions. The Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990-2009 says emissions were down 6 percent in 2009 compared to 2008 but only because the US economy was down and low natural gas prices caused fuel switching from coal to gas. The good news is 2009 emissions levels are about the same as 1995 levels. The bad news is they are still 7.4% above the 1990 levels the US EPA …Continue Reading »

My thanks to Heather Haney, a law student at UC-Berkeley, for the comments posted on my blog about Proposition 23 and for providing a copy of a Berkeley Law white paper excerpted below as an independent analysis of the implications of passage of Prop 23.
This white paper entitled “California at the Crossroads: Proposition 23, AB32 and Climate Change” provides Berkeley Law’s analysis of the implications of voter approval of this ballot measure in the upcoming November election. The white paper …Continue Reading »

Once upon a time in a land not far away from our memory, we experienced an extended period of economic growth. We actually manufactured things here in the US instead of importing them from China. We built homes by the subdivision instead of tucked them into some odd-ball sized inner city space. We needed mobility so we built the interstate highway system. We sent men to the moon and imagined entirely new ways to communicate with each other. I’m describing, of course, the post WWII America …Continue Reading »

The quest for clean energy sustainability has been waged on a strategy that can be summarized as ‘subsidize the good stuff, and demonize the bad’. This post is not about climate change risks, it is a focus on a condition precedent to a practicable achievement of emissions reduction goals----baseload generation.
Climate change advocates do not want to talk about baseload because it requires consideration of coal or nuclear generation. Renewable energy advocates do not want to talk about …Continue Reading »

“Congress’s inability to cap U.S. carbon emissions contributed to the failure to reach a global climate treaty last year in Copenhagen,” said PCAP Executive Director William Becker. “It now appears that Congress has failed again just months before international negotiators are set to reconvene. “Congress has passed the ball back to President Obama,” Becker said. “He should run with it.”
The Presidential Climate Action Project (PCAP) is a foundation-funded organization of Natural Capitalism …Continue Reading »

The US Government has at least twelve answers to this question.
This is the question the Federal government is asking six companies to demonstrate with $106 million in stimulus money. Six companies will have to match the grants with $156 million in private investment on conversion projects. Another six projects will receive $4.4 million in US DOE funding to demonstrate reuse applications for converted CO2. These projects emerged from the $1.4 billion in first round of stimulus money devoted …Continue Reading »